Ripples from La Prairie Voyageur Canoes: Ancestral synchronicity…

The phenomenon—where personal experiences like travels, activities, or collecting items (e.g., antiques) later reveal unexpected, meaningful links to your family history or ancestors—is commonly referred to as synchronicity, particularly in the contexts of genealogy and ancestry research.

Coined by psychologist Carl Jung, synchronicity describes causal, meaningful coincidences that feel too significant to be random, often interpreted as signs, guidance, or resonances from the past.

In ancestral contexts, it's sometimes specified as ancestral synchronicity, genealogical synchronicity, or location synchronicity (when it involves places).

My life’s experience is a profound example of Ancestral synchronicity memory or transgenerational resonance, where deep-seated passions and skills seem to have been passed down, manifesting as an intuitive, lifelong pull toward the lifestyle of my ancestors, even before I knew they existed.

The French-Canadian coureurs de bois ("runners of the woods") and voyageurs (travelers) were deeply involved in the North American fur trade for over two centuries, often living, trapping, and traveling by birchbark canoe in ways that sound identical to my 60 years of immersion.

Here is an analysis of the "ancestral synchronicity" in my journey, mapping my experiences to the historical realities of my ancestors:

1. Canoeing and Travel (The Voyageur Life)

• Historical Connection: French-Canadian ancestors were not merely traders; they were adept canoeists who traveled thousands of miles across the Great Lakes and inland rivers, transporting furs in birchbark canoes.

• Synchronicity: My 60 years of canoeing likely mirrored the same routes, water-reading skills, and physical endurance required to handle heavy, handcrafted canoes on the same waterways.

2. Trapping and Survival Skills

• Historical Connection: The coureurs de bois adopted Native American survival methods—trapping, hunting, and dressing skins (sometimes using brains to tan hides).

• Synchronicity: My youthful immersion in trapping suggests a, perhaps innate, understanding of the land and animal behaviors that my ancestors, as professional trappers, required to survive and prosper in the fur trade.

3. Historical Reenactments as "Living History"

• Historical Connection: Reenactors often describe their pursuit as an "addiction" to re-living the past, a desire to "tough it out like my ancestors did".

• Synchronicity: This is a direct parallel to the "deep historical roots" mentioned by modern reenactors who are often, in fact, descendants of the traders themselves. My 60-year reenactment likely allowed me to "remember" through my hands what you had not yet learned in books.

Forest Council mirror crafted in 1995

4. The Two-Century Connection

• The Nuance: The French-Canadian involvement was intense and long-lasting, starting in the early 1600s with companies like the North West Company hiring French-Canadians to traverse the continent.

• Conclusion: Finding this history after 60 years of living it confirms that the "pull" was not just a hobby, but an inherited, lived, and ancestral experience—a literal, physical, and spiritual reconnection to my ancestors’ daily routines.

My experience highlights that the fur trade was not just a commercial event, but a lifestyle that shaped the culture, survival skills, and bloodlines of many French-Canadian families.

My Life's Ancestral Synchronicity Timeline:

1950s

• Learned to ride a horse on Montana family homestead.

• Drawn to the sport of canoeing (learned as solo canoeist)

• Compelled to build a box trap and captured a fox.

• Grew up riding horses in wilderness areas.

1960s

• Drawn to adventure as a soldier and paratrooper.

• Continued as a carpenter—a trade that demanded physical strength and hard labor.

1970s

• Discovered I had French-Canadian ancestry (wondered about the fur trade).

1980s

• Discovered historical reenactments of ‘Fur Trade Rendezvous.’

• Drawn to and canoed Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area (8 days).

• Toured old Quebec and Montreal. Purchased an assumption sash and crooked knife.

• Drawn to and canoed Algonquin Provincial Park.

• Drawn to and canoed Yoho Provincial Park.

• Drawn to and canoed Maligne Lake (Athabasca River watershed).

• Discovered writers and artists of the Old West: JW Schultz, FB Linderman, GB Grinnell, AC Laut, G Nute, CM Russell, F Remington, F Schoonover, J Mora, PR Goodman, GT Marsh, etc.

• Riding horses in remote areas returned to my life.

1990s

• Solo paddled a 150-miles from Fort Benton to James Kipp Recreation Area traversing the Upper Missouri National Wild and Scenic River (6 days).

• Bought, sold and traded Old West Antiques (Cowboy, Mountain Man & Sporting).

• Designed, crafted and sold artistic furniture that depicted Old West, Native American and Forest carvings and artwork.

2000s

• Breakthrough discovery of my Pinsonneau and Legacé French-Canadian ancestry. All the way back to the beginnings of New France in the early 17th century.

2010s

• Genealogy study led me to La Prairie and "La Prairie en Nouvelle-France, 1647-1760, Étude d'histoire sociale" by Louis Lavallée yielding links to the following list of my ancestors mentioned in his book, on pages 144-159.

BARETTE (Guillaume Barette 1633-1717, 8th great-grandfather)

BOURASSA (Francois Bourassa 1659-1708, 7th great-grandfather)

BOYER (Charles Boyer 1631-1698, 9th great-grandfather)

CARON (Claude I Caron 1641-1708, 8th great-granduncle)

CUSSON (Marie Jeanne Cusson 1663-1738, 8th great-grandaunt w/o Joachim Jacques Leber 1664-1695, 7th great-granduncle)

DENEAU (Jacques Deniau Dit Destaillis)

DESROCHERS (Jean Baptiste Desroche(r)s 1649-1743, 7th great-grandfather???)

DIEL (Charles Diel dit Le Petit Breton 1652-1702, 8th great-grandfather)

DUPUIS (François Dupuis 1634-1681, 8th great-grandfather)

DUQUET (Etienne Duquet dit Desrochers 1695-1753, 6th great-grandfather)

GAGNE (Pierre Gagne (Gagnier) 1645-1726, 8th great-grandfather)

LEBER (Francois Leber (Le Bert, Lebert) 1626-1694, 8th great-grandfather)

LEMAISTRE (Denise Lemaistre 1636-1691, 9th great-grandmother)

LEMIEUX (Gabriel Lemieux 1663-1739, 8th great-grandfather)

MARIE, dit Sainte-Marie (Marie Elizabeth Marier dit Lemarier DNA match 1740-1831, 5th great-grandmother)

MOREAU (Gabrielle Louise Moreau 1694-1750, 7th great-grandmother)

PERRAS (Pierre Peras (Perras) dit La Fontaine 1616-1684, 9th great-grandfather)

PINSONNEAU (François Pinsonneau dit Lafleur 1646-1731, 7th great-grandfather)

POUPART (Pierre Poupart (Poupard) 1653-1699, 8th great-grandfather)

ROBIDOU (Andre Robidou dit L’Espagnol 1643-1678, 9th great-grandfather)

ROY (Madeleine Roy 1684-1726, wife of 8th great-granduncle (Jean Perras dit Lafontaine 1668-1736), thus launching a multiyear study of my La Prairie ancestry and their connection to the North American fur trade.